Animal v Athlete: Four times man has raced beast

Image copyrightSPL/DiscoveryImage caption The race is being broadcast as part of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week

Michael Phelps, the world’s most decorated Olympian and a swimmer nicknamed the “Flying Fish”, has gone head-to-head against a Great White Shark in a 100m race set to be broadcast by the Discovery network.

Although the athlete represents the peak of human athletic prowess, he still can only swim at a top speed of 5-6mph (8-10km/h) an hour, slower than the shark.

To even things up, the US swimmer wore a “monofin” for the open water race in South Africa, increasing his speed significantly but still not taking it anywhere close to the at least 25mph a Great White is capable of in short bursts.

And – spoiler alert – the athlete has revealed they were not in the water “at the exact same time” for safety reasons.

He said later that he fell “a bit in love” with Leah, one of the dolphins.

Jesse Owens v horses

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The black US track and field athlete won a string of victories at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in front of Adolf Hitler, who had been hoping for a games that would demonstrate the Aryan superiority he believed existed.

Owens later struggled financially back home in a country where racism remained rife and his sport was not professional.

To make money, he competed against racehorses in front of dazzled crowds.

He is said to have had the starting gun go off close to the horse, stunning it and allowing him to get away ahead (he also had a head start). Though this strategy worked most of the time, he didn’t always win.

Later, more opportunities became available to Jesse Owens and, among other roles, he served as Ambassador of Sports under President Eisenhower.

American football player v ostrich

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NFL wide receiver Dennis Northcutt easily beat an ostrich named Thelma in 2009 for a TV show called Sport Science.